Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Up 3.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s share price shot up 3.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on the stock from $535.00 to $590.00. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Meta Platforms traded as high as $510.86 and last traded at $509.54. 5,337,613 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 16,917,754 shares. The stock had previously closed at $494.17.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on META. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $590.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $385.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $415.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $400.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, thirty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $519.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total value of $253,697.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,924,027.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 19,681 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $392.36, for a total transaction of $7,722,037.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $517.75, for a total value of $253,697.50. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,579 shares in the company, valued at $3,924,027.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,440,278 shares of company stock worth $684,796,490 in the last three months. 13.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of META. Bank of Stockton raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Stockton now owns 4,743 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,819,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Signify Wealth purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $228,000. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,880,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Keel Point LLC raised its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 6,690 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,008,000 after buying an additional 399 shares during the period. Finally, Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth about $269,000. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $493.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $396.70. The company has a market capitalization of $1.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.20.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The social networking company reported $5.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.82 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $40.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.12 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 29.48% and a net margin of 28.98%. The business’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.00 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 21st. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.42%.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.